Sunday, May 23, 2010

Visits to doctors…

Recently, Mike has been visiting all of his favorite doctors – Dr Herron the pediatrician and Dr Crawford the orthopedic surgeon.

First, he visited Dr. Herron for his four month checkup at the end of April. Despite the fact that he was 5 months old at the time! That’s our son – already taking the non-traditional route and trying to buck the system! Actually, the real reason he was a month behind goes back to his 2 month checkup when he couldn’t get his shots because he was still in casts…

So they poked and prodded and weighed and measured. He’s was over 13 pounds – but that’s nearly irrelevant because he’s packed on quite a bit more since then! Everything came out wonderfully well and Dr. Heron was pleased with his progress! And that made us feel good (of course) – but the “big” visit was coming up a few days later.

And that was the visit to Dr. Crawford. It’s funny how everything with Mike’s clubbed feet has gone exceptionally well with the exception of the two week period where we tried the DBB brace before the tenotomy. Yet still, an upcoming visit to Dr. Crawford starts bringing those doubts back to the front of your mind. “I’m sorry mom and dad – you haven’t been using the brace properly and Mike’s feet will forever be clubbed”. Of course, that’s absolutely silly. But still, maybe it’s possible…

So we visited Dr. Crawford on May 6th. He asked about the schedule we were on with the brace. It was supposed to be “naps and nighttime” – which is impossible with an infant. Putting the brace on for a nap simply wakes him up and he’s ready to play some more! So we decided to take it of when he went to “school” on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Then we would leave it on all day Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday – and at nighttime. We explained the schedule to Dr. Crawford who said that it was probably more than he needed, but was glad we found a schedule that worked. He tells us many stories of folks (as hard as it is to believe) that simply stop putting the brace on their children only to have the feet revert back. And that truly is sad…

Then Dr. Crawford took Mike’s brace off to take a look at his feet. He squeezed them and twisted them and turned them and wiggled them. And in the end he said…

Mike’s feet are doing EXTRAORDINARILY well! And he even gave us another bit of good news – Mike now only needs to wear the brace at night! And let me tell you – he absolutely LOVES the extra time out of the brace! He’s learned so many new tricks – like pulling his socks of and nibbling on his toes…

But or doctor visiting wasn’t done yet. We can never seem to time our illnesses with our regularly scheduled visits. Once again, Mike was getting snotty and coughing. And this time, he was breathing was wheezy and his lungs were rattling. So it was back to visit Dr. Herron. A short examination later, she gave us a prescription for Xopenex. Mike really isn’t sure what to think about the breathing treatments. He’s pretty cool with it for the first few minutes. But after 5 minutes of “smoke” blowing in his face, he’s over it! But after it’s all over, he’s MUCH happier at how much better he can breath!

So we will leave you with a picture of our growing little boy – asleep in his swing – surrounded by his toys. Because that’s the way he likes it…